In which I run my favorite distance – 5 miles

I love a 5-miler. It’s short enough to fit into one hour and long enough to really clear my head. When I run 3 miles, it’s so short sometimes I spend the whole distance waiting for it to be finished, thinking about what I’ll do afterwards. But with 5 miles, you really have to settle in for the long haul.

6:15 am my and my running buddy (see below) left for a good fiver.

I finished them in about an hour, but I don’t know exactly because my Garmin died at mile 3.79. My splits are approximately as follows:

Mile 1 – 12:04

Mile 2 – 18:33 (stopped to talk to a friend)

Mile 3 – 12:14

Mile 4 – ????

Mile 5 – 11:00

It’s amazing what a couple weeks of solid running will do for you. Honestly, I have run more consistently the past two weeks than ever in my life. I always averaged 3 runs per week, maybe 4 during serious training. I always used to give in to silly excuses to cancel a run.

Since I’ve been dedicated to following the plan, however, I have felt my fitness and comfort with running increase quickly. I only had one brief moment of tiredness in the whole 5 miles.

I am contemplating making 5 miles my normal morning routine. It’s a nice, easy distance. I can finish it before even the earliest of my responsibilities. We’ll see how I feel about getting up at 5 am tomorrow to run at 5:45.

I also am thinking about adding some more serious core work. I know running is hard on my posture and therefore on my chronic back neck tension. So, I hypothesize that if I really work at strengthening my core, at the end of training, I won’t be a hunchback like normal. We’ll see how well I follow through.